A discourse of the saving grace of God

Hereby God is excluded from the Government of the World. Men are governed by their Wills, that is the Ruling, the Commanding Faculty; therefore if the Will be not under his Government, Men will not be under it, nor the rest of the World, so far as it is governed by Men. If he Dispose not of that which orders the rest, what is there left at his Disposal? All the Affairs of the World, which depend upon humane Conduct, will be governed more by the Will of Man, than by the Will, Power, and Providence ⟨p. 107⟩of God: By the Will of Man independently, as if he were God; but by the Lord of Heaven and Earth only Precariously, and at the Pleasure of Mans Will, as if he were a Subject, an Underling, an inferior Creature.

5. It denies the Almighty Power of God, will not admit him to be Omnipotent, and his Power Infinite: It is not Infinite, if it be bounded and limited; yet Mans Will bounds and limits the Divine Power. By their Principles, the Lord can no way deal with the Will, but so that it may resist him, and render all his Actings and Operations on it ineffectual: He cannot prevail with it in any thing so far, but that it may at once stand out and repel his Motions, render every Divine Attempt upon it successless: When he has done all that can be done by the Power of his Grace, the Will may be too hard for him; it must be always left to do what it list. He cannot Save a Man, how much soever he intends or desires it, unless it be the Wills Pleasure: Nor can he take any Course to make the Will pleased with it. He can neither so Change the Faculty, nor so represent the Object, but the Will may still reject it. He cannot ⟨p. 108⟩work Faith in him, nor bring him to Repentance, nor Create Holiness in his Heart; nor can he Continue him in a state of Holiness, unless it please the Will to submit; nor can he bring it to submit so, but that it may refuse, when all is done that his Grace can do. He can make no particular Decrees concerning Man, that are Positive and Peremptory, because he cannot master Mans Will: His Purposes must be Conditional and Respective to Free-will▪ He cannot make good his own Word, not verify what he Asserts, nor accomplish his own Prophecies, nor perform his Promises, if Mans Will stand in his way: Nor can he clear his way of it in any Method, but what the Will of Man may defeat. He cannot Accomplish his Desires and Intentions, if Mans Will resist him, and can never put the Will out of a Capacity of resisting and opposing, while it is a Will. It is essential to the Will, to be always able to resist; and if they stand not to this, they yield all: